The present invention relates to an electronic postage meter system and, more particularly, to the process of re-initialization of an electronic postage meter system.
In a conventional electronic postage meter, it is known to provide the postage meter with a microprocessor control system mounted in a secure housing. The microprocessor control system includes a microprocessor, read only program memory and one or more secure non-volatile memories. The non-volatile memories are customarily protected from access by the user through the user interface of the meter or by an external communication device. The meter accounting and funding information is stored in the secure non-volatile memories which is sometimes referred to, in combination with the memory security circuit, as the meter vault. The information customarily stored in the vault is the ascending registers, which provides a historical record of all postage dispensed by the postage meter since the meter was placed in service, descending registers, which account for postage funds available for posting by the meter, a control sum which when combined with the ascending register and descending register reading provide register reconciliation, and a piece count register. Additionally, each meter serial number is stored in the secured memory. Specifically, the descending register can be accessed by the meter user for recharge only after receiving an authorization code from the manufacturer's data center. A known process for remotely resetting the meter descending registers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,446, entitled Remote Postage Meter Resetting Method, issued to McFiggans et. al. As an additional security measure, the meter control system is housed in a secure housing employing tamper detection, such as, brake off screws, etc., which provide visual evidence if an attempt has been made to gain unauthorized access to the control system.
It has been empirically experienced that due to anomalies common to micro control systems or operator error, that a meter is reported inoperable and taken out of service, when in fact, the meter is fully functionable. In order to evaluate the meter's operability, once the meter is taken out of service, it is presently necessary in many instances for the manufacturer's service center to remove the meter cover to gain access to the meter's control system and apply intrusive procedures in order to circumvent the meter's internal vault security. Additionally, it is necessary for the service center to access the vault in order to retrieve the fund resident in the meter secure memory in order to credit the customer or user's account. Also, it is necessary to access the vault of operable but returned rental meters so that the accounting registers and other internal systems may be reinitialized in preparation for re-deployment of the meter.
It has been empirically experienced that often the service center determines that the returned meter is not defective. As a result, considerable unnecessary expense has been incurred in taking the meter out of customer service and transporting the meter to the service center. Additional expense has been incurred in removing the secure meter housing in order to check the control system since removal of the secure meter housing is destructive to the housing. With respect to rental return meter, again, additional expense is incurred in removing the secure housing in order to reinitialize the control system.